Introduction
Get ready, human resource professionals and consultants!
The personality paradigm is shifting. For three
decades, the HR community has generally followed the assumptions
of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (Myers
& McCaulley, 1985). These assumptions included:
| • |
a four-dimension
model, |
| • |
bimodal distribution of scores
on each dimension, |
| • |
sixteen independent types, |
| • |
the concept of a primary function
determined by Judger/Perceiver preference, and |
| • |
a grounding in the personality
theory of Carl Jung (1971). |
The emerging
new paradigm, The Five-Factor Model or The Big-Five,
is not a radical departure from the MBTI, but
rather more of an evolution from it. But, the new paradigm
is sufficiently different from the old one to require
a significant shift in thinking. For example, the new
paradigm involves:
| • |
five dimensions
of personality, |
| • |
a normal distribution of
scores on these dimensions, |
| • |
personality is best described by individual
traits rather than type groupings (the type concept
is gone), |
| • |
preferences indicated by strength
of score , |
| • |
people who score in the middle range
of the scales will have a combination of traits
and |
| • |
a model based on experience,
not theory. |
|
“(The WorkPlace) certainly provides more information
and possible applications than instruments I have been
using such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator”
“Among personality psychologists
there is a rapidly growing consensus that the domain of
individual differences in adulthood, as measured by rating
scales and questionnaire items, is almost completely described
by five broad factors....”
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